Bright, thin stripes of light poked through the pines on a Wednesday morning, like thousands of tiny flashlights aimed at the shadowed ground in front of me. A gentle breeze sent waves of movement through the dense treetops, sounding subtly like the drip-drip of the leaky faucet I had become so accustomed to in the Lodge just downhill from me. Walking the defined trail had become a routine — employees had to make multiple trips up and down the hill for supplies. We were running a business, and a booming one at that; people from all over the golden state drove hours to satisfy their own traditions as we satisfied ours by operating this mountainous getaway. It was a lakeside gem known by few, but enjoyed by all.
The gravel path widened. I crossed the upper bridge and found myself nearing a steep downhill slope leading towards the Lodge, my home for the summer. Slowing down my pace to admire the greenery around the path —
There she was. The beautiful blonde I had seen earlier in the week, her hair shimmering faintly. My eyes were heat-seeking missiles following their target. I felt a tingle down my back.
At first I could only see her head poke up above the crest of the hill, and then the 16 year-old’s shoulders, her chest and finally her slender legs. She was absorbed in a conversation with a taller man to her right side, maybe six foot, laughing. Her smile was mesmerizing, enchanting. Our eyes met, but she looked away quickly at the ground to her left. I recognized the man as her father, the kind and understanding man who I had helped to move into his cabin earlier in the week. I neared the two, the mottled gravel path crunching beneath my feet.
“Hey Adam!” I addressed the man with a smile.
“Nice day, isn’t it?” he replied. He turned towards me and stopped walking, signaling that he wanted to initiate a conversation. The girl stood not far from him. She gave me a cute smile, but again looked away shyly. We stood at the top of the hilly path.
Adam continued, “You know the stove in my cabin? Something’s wrong with the stovepipe. I can’t get a good draft and the door won’t close either. Could you take a look at it?”
“Of course! How ‘bout I’ll check it out right now?” I said with a smile, my brown eyes moving over again to the girl.
Adam had a puzzled look on his face. Then his eyes widened in realization. “Oh! I’m sorry, I never introduced you to my daughter. Mark, this is Jasey.”
“Nice to meet you, Jasey.” I extended a hand to the 5’2” girl, still looking up at me coyly with her soft, light-blue eyes. She gave me an awkward handshake and a giggle.
“Hi Mark,” she said quietly, still looking at me.
“Anyways, follow me up, I’ll show you what I mean.” The father said.
Jasey walked in front of both of us, the trail only being wide enough for double-file. Adam kept talking. His words were clear, but sounded fuzzy to me — my mind was preoccupied. Jasey’s gait itself was attractive, much less her perfect slender legs. My eyes began to drift off, tracing the curves of her thin waist and hips, symmetrical and beautiful.
Does this girl even think I’m attractive? She obviously is nervous around me, maybe that’s a sign! I’d had people tell me I’m handsome, but this girl was something else.
She turned her head and noticed me looking at her body. I immediately glanced back toward Adam walking beside me and I hoped she hadn’t seen. But when I looked back at her, she bit her lip and shot me a kinky smile. She was speaking to me with body language. At that moment, I knew there could be something between me and her.

—

A warm breath down my neck made my legs and toes tighten, and I felt lips kissing gently down my chest. I ran my fingers through her silky hair and closed my eyes tighter. The lips started back toward my neck. Just then, a loud ringing noise crescendoed in my right ear —
I opened my eyes and sat up, startled. Just a dream. Dammit. I heard footsteps outside my door and muffled voiced downstairs, right below my room. Time for another fucking day of work.
I slipped on some clothes and started out the door, clumsily hitting my shoulder on the doorframe, spinning me sideways. Not again. Fuck mornings. I started down the hall toward the stairway.
After breakfast with my manager and coworkers, it was time to start preparing for the barbecue we serve on the lake’s island once a week for the guests.
A doorknob rattled, and we turned to see the front door creak open. Adam walked in cautiously, not wanting to disturb anyone’s meal.
“Hey Adam, can I help you?” I piped up, putting my plate in the sink.
“Yeah, just here to catch the 9 o’clock,” he said.
“No problem, I’ll be out in a minute.” I responded, looking at the big analog clock, the long minute hand just an inch away from the 12 o’clock position. Adam smiled and exited the lodge; the door closed softly behind.
I grabbed my jacket and sunglasses and trotted down and out the door. It slammed behind me. I made my way to the dock, squinting at the beaming sun. Adam and Jasey sat comfortably on the boat, and I saw Jasey smile cutely at me. My hands shook nervously for a fraction of a second, then subsided.
I untied the boat and hopped on the back where the motor was. It started with one pull, per usual.
“Where you guys headed?” I said. This time Jasey answered, and I leaned forward to hear her response over the roaring motor.
“We’re going on a hike up Mt. Elwell,” she said. Jasey was soft-spoken and her voice was smooth and calming. She looked down and smiled, showing her perfect white teeth. Damn.
“Nice, I went up there last summer. Really good hike,” I said. Jasey turned and stood up, walking forward to retrieve something from her bag at the front of the boat.
I saw her shoe catch on something, maybe a nail, and immediately she fell. Her head bounced off the metal railing and I watched her tumble into the water with a quiet splash.
Adam sprung up, but his feet were glued to the floor of the boat. I felt adrenaline rushing through my chest. I killed the motor and made a B-line for Jasey, diving into the lake headfirst. A rush of silence.
I felt millions of ice-cold pricks covering my body, starting at my neck, wrapping around my shoulders, engulfing my arms and legs.
Under the surface, there was silence. My eyes searched frantically for any sign of her in the abyss. I caught a glimmer of her necklace around her neck, sinking deeper, deeper. I surfaced, took a quick breath, and plunged back into the opaque green water. It rushed into my ears, and light began to disappear as the weight of the water pushed on my chest.
Jasey.
I saw her, limp and helpless, weighed down by her hiking clothes and boots. More adrenaline punched through my veins. I reached, straining, made a grab for her wrist and pulled upward with all the power I could muster. She was now on the same level as I was, but still ten feet from the surface.
I’m not getting paid for this shit. I put my arm around her waist and kicked toward the surface as hard as I could. Once again I could see the twinkling of light, rippling and pulsing, illuminating the emerald world. My lungs screamed for air.
My head rose above the surface, and I gasped, struggling to keep Jasey’s head out of the water. Two hands grabbed her from the boat and pulled her up onto the flat surface. Adam then grabbed me and lifted me into the barge.
“Jasey!” Adam shouted, to no avail. He was crouching over her, distraught. Energy still coursing through my veins, I pushed him aside. I checked her pulse — nothing. I made my hands into a fist, remembering what I’d learned from a health class I took.
Another one bites the dust. Another one bites the dust. Humming that in my head was the recommended rhythm for chest compressions, exactly 100 beats per minute. Sucks that our first kiss couldn’t be under better circumstances. Her lips were cold and lifeless as I tried to resuscitate her.
Come on. Don’t die on me.
I stuck with standard procedure. Pump. Pump. Pump.
Suddenly her body jerked upward. She coughed, and water shot out of her nose and mouth.
Her mouth gasping for air, she coughed, her eyes closed.
“D-Dad?” she managed to whisper. There were tears in Adam’s eyes. I stood up from my crouch and stepped aside. He knelt beside the girl, the hint of a tear in his eyes.
His lower lip trembling, Jasey’s face pressed into the father’s shoulder.
Then I piped up. “Still going on a hike?” Adam’s eyes opened, a smile appearing on his miserable face.
Choking between tears and a chuckle, his lips replied inaudibly. He shook his head up and down, looking at his daughter.
Her lips, too, trembled, and she nodded, misty-eyed.

—

Footsteps stopped outside my door, and four knocks broke the peaceful silence, pulling me back to life from the novel I was reading. A cool breeze flowed in from the dark world outside my window; a buzzing light above my bed attracted several moths. They fluttered flippantly around the yellow beam, strobing the dim room.
Instantly I knew it was her.
I twisted myself out of the bed, and my feet planted loudly on the wooden floor. The door creaked open and Jasey stood in front of me. Her eyes jumped from the floor up to my eye level.
“Hi Mark,” she said quietly, much like she had said those same words the day prior. Both her eyes shifted from left to right as she smiled, not quite knowing which eye to look at. Her breath quickened. My eyes widened.
“Jasey, are–are you feeling better?” I asked awkwardly, stuttering. Shit.
“Yeah. I guess my head hurts a little. But at least I’m alive, right?”
I smiled. “Yeah.”
Jasey stepped into my room. “I really want to thank you, Mark. For saving my life.” Then she sighed.
Even in the dim light, the girl’s slender body was a beacon. Her hair lit up like a lighthouse when she turned toward to the door, closing it with both hands, sealing us both inside, removing us from the rest of the world.
When she turned back around, I took a step closer to her, closing the gap. My left hand found its way to her neck. My other hand pulled her body close to mine, the two of us standing next to my bed.
Her breath was warm against my face. The kiss was gentle, her lips soft and delicate against mine. My hand, a mind of its own, moved from her hips down to the crease of her ass, caressing her thin body.
Jasey’s hands moved from my chest up to my shoulders. She pushed me on the bed, her fingers near my waist, tugging my shirt up, hinting that it should come off. Long strands of blonde hair brushed my face, cloaking me in darkness.
I pulled my shirt over my head. Jasey bit her lip, her fingers finding their way down my chest and toward my jeans. I grabbed her wrist.
“Not yet,” I whispered in Jasey’s ear. I kissed her gently but passionately, biting her lower lip and holding her face with my hands.
She didn’t weight much. I rolled her onto her back, under my shirtless body; a gasp escaped from her lips. I pulled the tight blue t-shirt off of her, feeling every inch of her back with my hands as the fabric progressed over her head. Her breath quickened again as I teasingly removed her white, lacy bra.
I threw it on the floor, out of the way. And there we lay, my lips against hers, learning each other for a period of time.

—

I grinded the bulge of my pants into the girl, her legs spread, accommodating my body. Again she reached for the button of my pants; this time I didn’t stop her. She undid the closure and pulled down the zipper.
The pants came off, and onto the floor they, too, went. Her shorts slipped easily off her smooth, delicate legs.
Lying under me, the girl’s piercing blue eyes stared directly into mine. I kissed her and reached my hand into her underwear. Her neck tightened with pleasure when I pushed the tip of my middle finger inside of her.
She was wet. Her pussy tightened around my finger when I pushed it in all the way, and she shook. I kissed her neck and cheeks while feeling the inside of her. Jasey bit my lip; I put two fingers into her. She felt even tighter than before, and I could tell her pussy was getting wetter.
Her hand reached inside my underwear and she wrapped her hand around my dick. It was already hard as she stroked it, sending tingles through my legs.
She put her hands on my chest and rolled me over, straddling me. One hand pulled my boxers down my legs and threw them on the floor, the other lightly stroked my dick. Her lips were soft against my chest, kissing down, down, toward my belly button. Her face was right next to my dick. Her tongue was warm and wet against the head, teasing me.
Using her hands to guide it, she pushed my dick between her lips and into her mouth. She tightened her lips around the shaft, and I grabbed a fistful of sheets. She could tell how good it made me feel, massaging my dick with the inside of her mouth, using her tongue to make me even harder. Waves of pleasure crashed through my legs, up my chest, when I felt her lips slide all the way to the base of my dick, which touched the back of her throat. She held it inside her warm mouth until she couldn’t take it anymore, and relinquished her grasp.
Like an animal had taken control over me, I grabbed her around the midsection of her waist and pushed her down on the bed, rolling her onto her back. She smiled, awestruck and surprised.
I held her hands over her head, fingers intertwined with mine, her warm naked body against mine. Looking directly into her sky-blue eyes, my forehead against hers, I guided my dick until it just touched the lips of her pussy. Her legs trembled.
Slowly, inch by inch, I slid inside of her. I felt the tension in her legs release, allowing me to push deeper. I kissed her until she pulled away from my lips, her face displaying an expression of pure ecstasy. With a thrust, I pushed the rest of my dick inside of her. Her grasp on my hands immediately tightened.
I began to move rhythmically in and out of her. She raised her hips slightly to meet mine on each thrust.
Then she began to gasp. Her mouth was wide open, her eyes clenched shut. I sped up my pace and I felt her pussy tighten, tighten, she began to moan, she let go of my hands and started touching everything she could: my shoulders, back, chest. I wrapped my hands around her face and kissed her. She continued to moan and claw at me. I kept pounding her for what seemed like an eternity. All at once, I felt the tension release from her face, her body, from her pussy. Her breathing slowed.
Now it was my turn.
I felt a bead of sweat running down my chest, and I slowed down to let her recover for a moment. Then I pumped my hips faster, forcefully, pounding my dick inside of her.
Then I felt a deep pool building inside me, a warm bubbly pool, steaming and thrashing. Waves of colossal heights were being hurled against a shore inside of my body.
“I’m gonna come,” I said as quietly as I could, which was not very quiet at all.
Finally, I had jumped off the cliff. Passed the point of no return. Hurling toward the ground, an impact was building up. Getting closer, closer, closing my eyes because I knew I would hit the ground, until I grew wings and my plummet became a soar, I became enveloped in bright light —
Then I orgasmed.
I was brought back to the bed when I felt my hands involuntarily grabbing Jasey’s hair, kissing her lips, still pumping slowly. I could still feel my dick pulsing, releasing, feeding Jasey’s hunger.

And we lay there for quite a while, breathing into each other and sharing the warmth of each other’s tired and trembling bodies.

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